The Dap Project for Statistics and Graphics

Table of contents

Dap is a small statistics and graphics package based on C.
Version 3.0 and later
of Dap can read SBS programs
(based on the utterly famous, industry standard statistics system
with similar initials - you know the one I mean)!
The user wishing to perform basic statistical
analyses is now freed from learning and using C syntax for straightforward
tasks, while retaining access to the C-style graphics and statistics features
provided by the original implementation.
Dap provides core methods of data management, analysis, and graphics that are
commonly used in statistical consulting practice (univariate statistics,
correlations and regression, ANOVA, categorical data analysis, logistic regression,
and nonparametric analyses).

Anyone familiar with the basic syntax
of C programs can learn to use the C-style features of Dap quickly and easily from the manual
and the examples contained in it; advanced features of C are not
necessary, although they are available. (The manual contains a brief
introduction to the C syntax needed for Dap.)
Because Dap processes files one line at a time, rather than reading entire files into memory, it can
be, and has been, used on data sets that have very many lines and/or very
many variables.

I wrote Dap to use in my statistical consulting practice because the
aforementioned
utterly famous, industry standard statistics system
is (or at least was) not available on GNU/Linux and costs a bundle every year under
a lease arrangement. And now you can run programs written for that system
directly on Dap! I was generally happy with that system, except for
the graphics, which are all but impossible to use, but there were
a number of clumsy constructs left over from its ancient
origins. Thus,
I decided to mimic the core of the functionality of that system in the
context of the C language, which allows much more programming
flexibility.

Dap is a GNU program and is free software distributed under a
GNU-style
copyleft.

Dap source code can be found as a gzipped tar file in http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/dap.
Dap builds successfully on a variety of GNU/Linux and Unix
platforms. Dap
comes with a manual in info form, which can rendered into dvi form
using
texi2dvi.

The following instructions tell you how to install Dap.

GENERALITIES

This document concerns building and installing Dap from sources.

Dap will configure and build under a number of common Unix-like
platforms.The
directions here are for GNU/Linux; the configure and build for other
platforms are similar.

Dap is a GNU program and is free software distributed under a
GNU-style
copyleft. See the file COPYING for details.

GETTING AND UNPACKING THE SOURCES

The simplest way is to download the most recent `dap-x.y.tar.gz' package
into a directory that we'll call `DAP_HOME' and untar it with:

gunzip -c dap-x.y.tar.gz
| tar -xvf -

This should create directories `src', `doc', and `examples'.

COMPILATION

If you want the executables, includes, library, and info files installed
in subdirectories `bin', `include', `lib', and `info', respectively, of
`/usr/local', then simply issue the following commands:

./configure
make install

Otherwise, if you want to install dap in subdirectories of another
directory, say "home/dap", after the `./configure' command, instead type type:

make prefix=home/dap install

Note: when DAP_HOME/src/dap.c
compiles, you will get a warning:

implicit declaration of function
`strcat'

and when DAP_HOME/src/dap0.c compiles, you will get a warning:

implicit declaration of function
`dap_main'

Ignore these warnings. Now rehash.

ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variables are used by Dap:

DAPEDITOR
path name for Emacs
DAPEDOPTS
options for the Emacs front-end
DAPPAGER
for viewing tabular output from Dap
DAPPAGEOPTS options for that pager
DAPCOMPILER for compiling programs to run under Dap
DAPCOMPOPTS options for that compiler
DAPVIEWER for viewing graphical
output from Dap
DAPVIEWOPTS options for that viewer
DAPPP
path name for the Dap preprocessor
(default: /usr/local/bin/dappp)
DAPRUNS
path name for the Dap process that runs the
preprocessor and complier
(default: /usr/local/bin/dapruns)
INCDIR
directory for compiler to find <dap.h>
(default: /usr/local/include)
LIBDIR
directory for compiler to find libdap.a
(default: /usr/local/lib)

All but the last four are further documented in the manual.

READING THE MANUAL

To read the manual in info, you will need to have `/usr/local/info'
(or whatever directory you installed the info file in) in your
`INFOPATH'.
The
following command (which you will probably want to put in
yourshell's
`rc' file) will do that if your shell is `csh':

setenv INFOPATH
".:/usr/info:/usr/local/info"

Then issue the command:

info dap

If you prefer dvi or html manuals, they can be made from the file:

DAP_HOME/doc/dap.texi

(See the documentation for texi2dvi, dvips, and texinfo.)

The manual will tell you how to run and use dap. The program
and
data files for the examples in the manual are in the directory
DAP_HOME/doc/examples.

MACHINE DEPENDENCY

Dap assumes that you have a machine with 64-bit double precision
floating
point numbers conforming to the IEEE floating point standard. If
that is not the case, then you may have to modify `machdep.c'; good
luck.

BUG REPORTS AND COMMENTS

Send bug reports to <bug-dap@gnu.org>.

If you use dap, please let me know about your experience using it,
and
suggestions, by mailing
to <dap-users@gnu.org>. Thanks.